The present disclosure relates generally to content synchronization. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to methods, systems, and computer program products for providing content synchronization or control among one or more devices.
A number of television companies have produced interactive television (ITV) applications utilizing a home computer for the interactivity and synchronization of the interactive content to the television broadcast. Some examples include TBS (“Friends” and “Dinner & A Movie”), Comedy Central (“Win Ben Stein's Money”), Game Show Network (“Greed”), and ABC (“Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?”). In addition, a smaller number of households have set-top boxes (i.e., cable boxes) or net-top boxes (e.g. AOLTV, UlitmateTV) that are capable of providing television overlays for ITV applications. A number of television companies have either provided ITV applications specifically for AOLTV or UltimateTV, for example, CBS “CSI”), or have provided interactive television applications that can be accessed by both a home computer and a capable set-top box or net-top box (e.g., “Friends”, “Greed”, etc.).
Typical ITV applications produced to date have been produced after the show production was completed (in cases of taped shows). The interactive content was written to complement the primary video content. Close synchronization of the interactive content with the primary video content to which it related was accomplished through coordination with personnel in the broadcast studio over the telephone. The producers of ITV applications controlled the synchronization from a remote location, and triggered each segment upon a cue from the broadcast operator.
Interactive content can be delivered through one of several different techniques. In the case of a two-screen approach in which the screen for displaying the interactive content is a computer, an open socket can be used whereby the interactive content is pushed to the end user. It is also possible to provide additional content by encoding additional data with the television signal. This process is used, for example, with closed captioning. Another known method for providing interactive content to users, such as users of a net-top box, is to provide a trigger to the end user device, which uses the trigger to retrieve content from a server.
One of the main drawbacks of the current ITV applications is that the user of the ITV applications has little or no control of the synchronization, coordination, or criteria for association of the content provided. For example, if a user is watching a program and wants to view a related content on a secondary display the user will have to manually tune the second display to the desired related content. Additionally, the user may be unable to select a different secondary content than that provided by the ITV application.